It took me all day to walk home. The sun was just setting as I arrived in the meadow.
It’s the golden hour, and I love how Ted’s flowers light up as if they are filled with the essence of everything.
Ted was waiting for me inside.
“How was it?” he asked.
“It was…” I had no words. I started to say, it was like any day. But that wasn’t right or true. I started to say it felt amazing. But that sounded cliche.
He looked at me and smiled. “I can see how it was. It was a success.”
But I said, no. It really wasn’t. If it was meant to be something transformative, then I’d failed. It hadn’t worked. Because I felt the same as before. I felt strong, sure. And I felt good. But I had to admit that I was just a normal person.
He laughed. “It just hasn’t sunk in yet,” he said. “Give it time to do its work. And besides, who says that magic isn’t normal?”
I felt something pop when he said that.
This is normal.
I was living a miracle, and I always had been, and I was totally and completely changed, but it had happened so gradually and then so completely that I hadn’t even realized that it was happening.
“You may not know it,” Ted had said, “But you’re sparkling.”
I slept for a few days. It was weird because I didn’t feel wiped out. I felt really strong. I was just really, really tired.
When I got up, I was ravenous. Ted had a pot of beans on the stove and some bread on the table, and I ate three bowls and half the loaf.
Then I found him outside.
“How’d you sleep?” he asked.
“Pretty good!” I replied.
“Are you ready to harvest some herbs?” he asked.
We headed into the back country to some meadows where wild currants grow. Ted said every bruja worth her salt knew where to get the wild currants and gooseberries.
Cathy Tea's SimLit Anthology 